2026 Hot Seat Rankings: Luke Fickell, Dave Aranda among six college football coaches with jobs on the line

Welcome once again to the annual CBS Sports Hot Seat Rankings, where the most pressured coaches in the sport take center stage. Last season was a bloodbath with major names like Brian Kelly, James Franklin and Mike Gundy shown the door. However, there seems to be a calm after the storm. 

In fact, 95 coaches have a hot-seat score under 2.0. Forty-seven of them are under 1.0, a massive increase compared to 28 last season. A number of first-year coaches received zeros from the group, but mainstays like Kirby Smart, Curt Cignetti and Dan Lanning finished near the top of the list. 

With the new era of college football, firing decisions have become a little more complicated. Multiple hot-seat coaches were brought back for 2026 and promised more support and resources. Others were returned to help develop a star player. And then of course, there are cases of schools simply being too broke to pull the trigger... looking at you, Tallahassee. 

2026 College Football Hot Seat Rankings: Evaluating job security of all 138 FBS coaches

CBS Sports Staff

Last year, only one coach earned a "perfect" 5.0. Louisiana Tech's Sonny Cumbie went on to beat the odds and posted an impressive 8-5 campaign. Oklahoma's Brent Venables went from the country's second-hottest seat to the College Football Playoff, while Arizona's Brent Brennan cemented his place with a nine-win season. A bad grade is by no means a death sentence in a sport where everything can change in an instant. 

The rest of the coaches to receive higher than 4.0s were less lucky. All five were ultimately fired. Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy and UAB's Trent Dilfer were let go unceremoniously midseason during miserable campaigns. The hot seat giveth and taketh away. 

America's Hottest Seats

Team	Name	Rating	Breakdown
	Mike Norvell	5.0	Rarely has a coach returned to a championship-level program so often because of finances alone. Norvell's behemoth contract includes more than $50 million in buyout money despite a 7-17 record over the past two seasons. There were moments of optimism for the Seminoles last season, but opening with SMU and Alabama in the first three weeks could leave Norvell's tenure dead on arrival.
	Dave Aranda	5.0	If former athletic director Mack Rhoades had not been forced to resign, Aranda likely would have been fired last year. Instead, Aranda is entering an unlikely Year 7 after a wildly disappointing 5-7 season. The Bears have four losing seasons in six years under Aranda, but the addition of former five-star QB DJ Lagway adds a level of intrigue in Waco. Will it be enough?
	Luke Fickell	5.0	Wisconsin has largely admitted that the program was slow to adapt to the new world of NIL and the transfer portal, but Fickell bears much of the responsibility for the error. The Badgers are 16-21 under Fickell and have won fewer games each season. Opening against Notre Dame won't be much fun.

2025 Hot Seat: Now or Never

Team	Name	Rating	Breakdown
	Mike Locksley	4.9	Locksley has been pretty good for a while, but time is ticking in College Park. The Terrapins have posted consecutive 4-8 seasons despite a recruiting boom in recent years. Quarterback Malik Washington was one of the best true freshmen in America, and he gives Locksley some legs heading into a pivotal season.
	Shane Beamer	4.3	Beamer has gone through just about every up and down at South Carolina, oscillating between winning and losing records each of the past four years. Retaining quarterback LaNorris Sellers and defensive end Dylan Stewart is tremendous for the program, but now they have to win. The Gamecocks are also the biggest losers of the new nine-game SEC schedule; nine SEC opponents and Clemson is too hard for just about any program.
	Bill Belichick	4.1	Belichick's situation is one of the most fascinating in the sport. The first half of his first season was a total embarrassment, but the Tar Heels played better down the stretch. They committed hard to high school recruiting, signing 41 high school players. Now, they have to show some signs of life -- and Belichick has to show he's in it for the long haul after turning 74.

2025 Hot Seat: Getting warmer 

Team	Name	Rating	Breakdown
	Lincoln Riley	3.8	Riley is facing one of the most important seasons of his career in 2026. The Trojans invested heavily to land the No. 1 recruiting class in the nation, and return star quarterback Jayden Maiava. With an all-in season on the horizon, Riley also hired former Big 12 foe Gary Patterson as his defensive coordinator. USC invested an unbelievable amount of money in Riley when he came from Oklahoma; this is the year it has to come together.
	Derek Mason	3.6	There was modest optimism that Mason could leverage his Nashville-area connections to help MTSU stabilize post-Rick Stockstill, but results have been putrid through two seasons. The Blue Raiders are 6-18 and haven't even hung with CUSA's middle class. A modest point of optimism is that MTSU lost four one-score games last season, but getting Kennesaw State, Western Kentucky and Liberty in consecutive weeks could spell doom.
	Scott Satterfield	3.5	Scott Satterfield's seasons have been painfully predictable. They show tons of promise in the first half, then collapse in the second. After starting 7-1, Cincinnati lost five straight games last season. Things won't be easier without Brendan Sorsby, but a legitimately elite offensive line could help ease the pressure. Week 1 against Boston College is a must-win. Speaking of which...
	Bill O'Brien	3.5	The Golden Eagles showed some promise in O'Brien's first season, but Year 2 was a total disaster. If not for the corpse of Syracuse collapsing in the final game, Boston College was at risk of losing every FBS game. Things don't get much easier with Notre Dame, Miami, Duke, SMU, Georgia Tech and Cincinnati on the schedule. An 0-for is possible.